ILTA White Papers

www.iltanet.org Disparate teams come together to deliver high-quality business outcomes through social media tools. The firm's partners and lawyers are delivering social media training sessions on the risks and rewards of social media for the firm and its clients, including brand protection and legal risks. Resourcing Rather than hiring an expensive dedicated resource, the firm has minimized costs by utilizing existing expertise for its social media programs. The KM team has temporarily transferred one of its social media-savvy knowledge consultants to the communications team to assist in a range of external-facing programs. Working on the firm's Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube channels, this resource has also helped draft and implement the firm's social media strategy. The benefits of this arrangement include improved coordination of activities and the sharing of expertise and ideas across the teams. Springboard: An Internal Platform The KM team, as early adopters of social media and with a charge to facilitate knowledge-sharing and collaboration, is spearheading the introduction of the firm's internal social media platform. Developed internally as an extension of the firm's existing information platform, Springboard tightly integrates social media features (such as microblogging, following, liking, sharing and commenting) into the firm's client, sector, matter, people and team spaces. 56 ILTA White Paper Many other organizations have implemented social enterprise systems. Their experience tells us that the widespread adoption of social tools requires a significant change initiative. We have started that process with a pilot of more than 300 users on the Springboard platform. The pilot is being used to not only refine the functionality, but to establish what is working and what isn't. This enables us to build on successes and identify how to optimize the adoption of the social platform within the firm. We have found that adoption can be optimized by: • Communicating the purpose and benefits of Springboard • Identifying and promoting opinion leaders and their uses of social tools and messaging • Promoting model behaviors to show how people and teams are using Springboard to support their work • Celebrating successes • Providing appropriate training and support to demystify the social media jargon A few months into the pilot, communities from across the firm, including sector and project teams, are

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